I live on a small lake near Crown Point, IN. I love to look out my window and see the lake. A couple of years ago, I started training Ginger, my Irish Setter, to kayak with me. Talk about a Herculean effort on my part. Ginger is hyperactive and constantly moves around, whether in the house or outside. It took her several times to learn that moving around in a kayak would land her in the lake.

Consequently, she had to swim fifty yards to return to dry land. There was no way that I could pull her back into the kayak. Finally, Ginger learned to settle down and just sit in the front of the kayak.

Due to medical problems, Ginger hasn’t been out on the lake for a couple of years. She looks at the kayak moored to the dock in the last couple of weeks. We have talked about going out together again. However, she has acquired some fears related to the lake. One is about a relative of the Loch Ness monster lurking in our lake. Someone must have shown Ginger this photo.

While trying to quell Ginger’s anxiety about confronting Nessie, she fears a shark might lurk in the lake’s depths, just waiting to attack. I had made the mistake of watching Jaws one evening with Ginger.

Jaws is approaching

Last weekend, Ginger and I had a long chat about her fear. I told her that I was the captain of my kayak and would protect her. I also told her about memorizing poems or prose in English classes in high school. I had memorized the last stanza of Invictus. If you didn’t have to memorize poetry or prose in high school, take a minute to read Invictus by William Ernest Henley. The title is a Latin word which means to conquer or overcome.

Henley’s medical issues were the genesis of Invictus. He wrote the poem while in the hospital. He had contracted tuberculosis of the bones in his left leg. The doctors amputated his leg and were ready to remove his right leg. Fortunately, he contacted the famous surgeon Joseph Lister, who operated on Henley in Edinburgh. Lister used a radically new surgical approach to tuberculosis in the bones in his other leg. He was hospitalized for nearly two years from 1873-75. While recovering from Lister’s surgery, he wrote poetry, including Invictus, in 1875.

William Ernest Henley

Invictus inspired Nelson Mandela while he was imprisoned on Robben Island during the period of apartheid in South Africa. He memorized Invictus and would recite it to his fellow prisoners while in that South African gulag.

I didn’t miss the irony that Mandela, a black South African, gained strength from a white British poet. South Africa had been a British colony since the early 1800s.

Invictus has inspired me. America was also a British colony. I hope this essay will inspire all my readers wherever they may live. The impetus for composing this article relates to my family in Myanmar, which was also a British colony until after WWII.

Ti Ti, my oldest granddaughter, wants to get her college education in the States. Then, she wants to return to Myanmar to improve the living conditions in her country. The parallels between South Africa and Myanmar are striking.

As her grandfather, I want to recite Invictus to her, which will inspire her. However, reciting it to her motivates me even more to assist her. Time will tell, but I will never give up.

Someday in the future, Ti Ti will inspire people in Myanmar like Invictus has inspired so many others worldwide.

This video is of Morgan Freeman reciting Invictus.